RED WING — Red Wing had a berth in the Section One, Class AAA baseball championship game squarely in its sights.
Then Albert Lea stunned the Wingers, elminated them from the section tournament and ended their season with a 10-7 victory in a loser-out game here Monday.
The third-seeded Tigers rallied for six runs in their last at-bats, in the top of the seventh inning, to beat the No. 2-seeded Wingers and advance to today's section final against top-seeded Northfield at 5 p.m. If Albert Lea wins the first game, a second championship game will follow.
Albert Lea scored once in each of the first four innings to take a 4-0 lead after three-and-a-half innings. But the Wingers erupted for six runs in the bottom of the fourth and added another run in the fifth for a 7-4 lead.
But the Tigers rallied in the seventh. They were led by Jake Thompson (4-for-5, one RBI); Mason Hammer (3-for-5) and Parker Mullenbach (3-for-5, two RBIs).
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Jake Bordewick pitched the final 3 1/3 innings to pick up the victory. He allowed one unearned run on five hits with three walks and a strikeout.
Tait Kelly suffered the loss for the Wingers, allowing four runs on four hits over 2/3 of an inning. Red Wing was led at the plate by Tyler Defore (2-for-4, one run, one RBI), Kelly (2-for-3, 3 RBIs) and Carson Bryan (3-for-4, 1 RBI).
The Wingers end their season with a 14-10 overall record. Albert Lea takes a 16-9 mark into today's championship game against Northfield (19-4).
